Summary

The article outlines six common mistakes new managers make and provides guidance on how to avoid or rectify them to ensure successful leadership and team management.

Abstract

The transition into a managerial role is fraught with potential pitfalls that can undermine a new leader's effectiveness. The article "6 Common New Manager Mistakes, and How to Fix Them" addresses these challenges by identifying key areas where new managers often struggle. These include failing to set clear priorities and expectations, not aligning with the company's mission, neglecting to manage up, over-relying on past skills that led to promotion, poor delegation, and avoiding conflicts. The author emphasizes the importance of goal-setting to drive focus, the necessity of understanding and integrating the company's broader mission, the benefits of a positive relationship with one's boss, the need to acquire new managerial skills, the value of effective delegation, and the productive role of conflict in team dynamics. By being self-aware, developing a thick skin, and maintaining a solid work ethic, new managers can overcome these obstacles and thrive in their roles.

Opinions

Goal-setting is crucial for driving focus, setting priorities, and fostering engagement among team members.
New managers must align their team's goals with the overarching mission of the organization to prevent siloed thinking and counterproductive competition between departments.
Establishing a good working relationship with one's boss is essential for career progression and accessing development opportunities.
Managers should not rely solely on the skills that got them promoted; they must learn new competencies relevant to their managerial role.
Effective delegation is a challenge but is necessary for team growth, skill development, and freeing up the manager's time for higher-level tasks.
Conflict should not be avoided but managed in a healthy manner, as it can lead to problem-solving and a more open team environment.
Learning from mistakes is an intrinsic part of a manager's growth, and a mindset geared towards continuous improvement is vital.
The journey of leadership is an ongoing learning experience, and embracing this process can lead to significant personal and professional development.

LEADERSHIP | MANAGEMENT

6 Common New Manager Mistakes, and How to Fix Them

Because you’ll have enough else to worry about

Image by Vinicius Wiesehofer on pexels.com

You’re never as good as you think you are.

And as a new manager, that’s going to be made painfully clear. Expectations from subordinates, your boss breathing down your neck, and the necessary mistakes piling up while you learn the ropes.

Pressure’s going to mount.

There’s no cheat code. Only self-awareness, a thick skin, and a solid work ethic is going to get you through.

You want to hit the ground running. I’ve been coaching new leaders for over a decade. Here’s what I’ve seen are impactful areas to focus on to increase your chances of being a success from the start.

Let’s go.

#1. Failing to set clear priorities and expectations

You can’t make good decisions if you don’t know where you want to end up.

It helps drive focus, set priorities, and foster engagement.

Your goals can be dynamic or fixed. Just make sure you know the optimal direction.

If you don’t know the goal, you can’t steer the ship in the right direction. And for staff, it’s a lot easier for them to improvise and make trade-offs when they know the destination.

The best part? Every failure becomes a powerful lesson. An intrinsic one. Because when we know how short we fell, we can know how to adjust for next time.

If we never understand the goal and get chewed out when we miss it despite our best efforts, we’ll just feel resentful or useless.

Both kill motivation.

#2. Not getting in alignment with the company’s mission

When you’re focused on your goals, you can miss how they fit into the wider goals of the organisation.

Every company has a ‘why’. It’s at the heart of everything they do. If you don’t know it, you can quickly develop a silo mentality where you’re prioritising your goals, directly or indirectly working against other departments. Everyone loses.

The fix is easy: find it out. But go one more. Spread the gospel. Put the mission at the heart of everything you and your team do.

And make sure you understand it as well as your boss. If your understanding doesn’t match theirs, you’ll be tripping over yourself and them.

Speaking of that…

#3. Not managing up

Your boss controls your future.

They have a firm grip on your happiness at work, your ability to perform, and the opportunities that come your way too.

A bad relationship can mean a terminal diagnosis for your chances of success in that job.

If you can develop a good working relationship with your boss, you get all the perks that will come with this, like their trust and respect. And they’re more likely to invest time and effort in developing you.

Managing up means understanding how to get your boss onside. Learn what’s important to them, and what they use to evaluate you. Then prioritise having a high impact on these areas and build the trust you need to leverage to do the things that are important to you.

#4. Leaning too much on what got you here

Few people are equipped to be great managers from day one. They might have been an excellent line worker. But that only got you in the door. What got you here isn’t enough anymore. You need new skills now.

The best managers adapt and learn how to be useful and effective. But this takes conscious effort, patience, and time.

I used to know a guy who was known as the editing assassin. He had an incredible eye for detail, and was top of everyone’s list when it came to getting documents proofread. His emails were always perfectly written, balancing humour with information, tone with wit. And they were immaculate. All his writing was.

When he got promoted, he kept trying to maintain this level of awesomeness. And it cost him. He started falling behind on correspondences, losing ground on projects, and being stepped over for issues. He’d obsess over the smallest of details, and bottleneck projects as everything had to be proofread by him.

He quit after three months.

The sad reality is all he needed to do was step back and recognise what made him a good line worker, then become a coach to get others to that standard rather than trying to still be that person.

And he needed to adjust his communications to be briefer and more direct — a new skill he’d need to learn. Otherwise he’d never respond to everything (as happened).

He learned the wrong lessons and walked away. And we lost a great talent.

#5. Poor delegation

You can’t do it all yourself and you’ll fail if you try.

But most new leaders struggle to delegate effectively because of the balance between authority, accountability, and responsibility.

The person who’s taken on the task is now responsible for its execution. And trusting someone with the authority to get things done can make you feel exposed and vulnerable. Because you’re still accountable for it being done, and being done well.

They let a fear of failure limit their options. Instead of letting go, they grip tighter. Perhaps they’re still not confident in their abilities, and worry about being shown up by the employee.

New managers often end up micro-managing as a result. They want to provide support, but this can come across to the subordinate as a lack of trust, or just plain annoying.

The secret is to let go. Trust your team and give them a chance to shine. The benefits to all of you are huge:

They gain vital skills and responsibility (adding value to the team)
You get better at delegating
You win time to work on other projects

And even if it goes wrong, that feedback is crucial to your development.

Learn by doing.

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” — General Patton.

#6. Avoiding conflicts

Leaders need thick skin.

Because if you’re one of those ‘peace and love’ managers, you’re going to drive everyone crazy.

Conflict can be very healthy. It’s the fission that drives the engine of production. It also gives people a chance to get things off their chest. It gets problems out in the open where they can be resolved, rather than in the shadows where they fester.

So rather than avoiding it, embrace it. Find healthy ways for it to be managed within parameters that are fair and transparent for all.

You may have some trauma around conflict. And while I feel for you, that’s something you’re going to need to work on if you’re going to run a smooth operation.

You can’t improve what you won’t admit needs fixing.

Suppressing isn’t addressing. Work on it.

It takes time to grow as a manager, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself at the start.

Above are some of the common things that, if focused on and overcome, will give you a boost.

But everything you do has the opportunity to change your leadership ability, and change your life.

There’s lessons in the everyday. Seek and thee shall find.

Be bold. Try your best. Make mistakes. Learn.

And remember: the journey is the fun part. No matter how bad things get, there’s always tomorrow. So just keep moving.